Website Home Page vs. Landing Page – What’s the Difference?

By Mike Lieberman | Yahoo Small Business

Website Home Page vs. Landing Page – What’s the Difference? Understanding the difference between a home page design and a landing page design is something only a marketing professional would be able to help you with. Marketing your business on the internet hasn’t become any easier, in fact most marketing pros who are following the changes going on in the industry will tell you it has become much, much more complicated.The major difference is that the browsers are two different types of visitors with two different backgrounds.

People landing on your home page probably know you. More than likely they typed in your name or your web address. They were probably referred to you by someone, attended a workshop, or read something you wrote. They need to be nurtured, not sold. They need all the navigation and resources on your site so they can continue to get to know you better.

People who end up on alanding page don’t know you. They found something online that linked back to this page. They need to be convinced, educated and made to feel comfortable that you and your business have the solution. They shouldn’t have any navigation. You want to keep their interaction simple and direct. Make sure you don’t give them too many options or too much information. Remember your goal is to get them to come out of hiding and identify themselves to you.

To create effective landing pages you are going to need to think through your entire conversion strategy. Landing pages should be connected directly to places new visitors are coming from and the content they are requesting. This will help you see what sources are driving traffic and what content is enticing visitors to become leads. It’s critical that this be thought out before any website design or redesign project.

Make sure you track the performance of your home page and your landing pages. Both should be converting visitors into leads at a pace of 2% to 4% each and every month. If they aren’t performing to this level, you might need some assistance.

Start Today – Do you have a landing page strategy? If not, you are definitely leaving money on the table. Does your home page talk to people who already know you or does it assume they are new to your business? You might be sending the wrong messages to the right people. If you don’t have a strategic approach to your landing pages you should consider reaching out to someone with experience turning website traffic into leads.